A frosted stemmed glass of opaque tomato-red cocktail stands between an open unlabeled tin and a clear gin bottle on a dark wooden bar against a green wall. — Gin and tomato juice in a stemmed cocktail glass, with a can of tomato juice and an unlabeled bottle of gin.

Gin and Tomato Juice, the 1929 Hangover Cocktail

Name: Gin and Tomato Juice
Prep time: 3 min
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 fl oz gin; 2 fl oz chilled tomato juice; ice cubes

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Equal parts tomato juice and gin, shaken cold: the Broadway cocktail of January 1929, drunk against the next morning’s headache ten years before the name Bloody Mary turns up in print.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 24, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 drink
Prep: 3 min
Total: 3 min

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Gin and tomato juice in a stemmed cocktail glass, with a can of tomato juice and an unlabeled bottle of gin.

The story behind the recipe

Ten years before the Bloody Mary had its name, Broadway was drinking gin and tomato juice. In January 1929 the columnist O. O. McIntyre, whose syndicated “New York Day by Day” was printed as far from Broadway as Marion, Ohio, reported that “a popular cocktail diversion of the moment is composed of equal parts tomato juice and gin.” That is the whole recipe: two ingredients, half and half.

A cure for the morning after

McIntyre gave the reason in the next line. “The juice of the tomato is reputed to frustrate next morning’s parade of ‘The Brooklyn boys’ over the transom,” he wrote, and he did not sound convinced: “Broadway seizes upon any panacea for the day after throb with a fervor. A few months ago it was kraut juice.” The tomato was a hangover remedy, by reputation, and the gin came with it.

This was Prohibition, so the gin was illegal, and the tomato juice was new. Before 1928, a USDA radio script said a few years later, tomato juice “was canned in very small amounts”; by the early 1930s it was the first course at dinner, as What Was a Tomato Juice Cocktail? tells. The same mixture with vodka turned up in New York columns in 1939 as The Bloody Mary as First Described (1939).

Making it today

McIntyre gives no ice, glass or seasoning. We shake it cold and strain it into a cocktail glass; that part is ours. Salt and pepper are not in the report, so any seasoning is your own; the Dodge Hotel Tomato Juice Cocktail from 1930 gives a period one, with salt, horseradish and a little sugar, and makes the alcohol-free glass. McIntyre’s column and the beef tea and clam punch that came before it are in The Bloody Mary Before It Had a Name.

A popular cocktail diversion of the moment is composed of equal parts tomato juice and gin. The juice of the tomato is reputed to frustrate next morning’s parade of “The Brooklyn boys” over the transom. Broadway seizes upon any panacea for the day after throb with a fervor. A few months ago it was kraut juice.

O. O. McIntyre”New York Day by Day” (January 1929)

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Ingredients

For 1 drink. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 drink.

Gin2 fl oz
Chilled tomato juice2 fl oz
Ice cubes

Ingredients as written here

2 fl oz gin
2 fl oz chilled tomato juice
ice cubes

Equipment

Cocktail shaker
Strainer
Cocktail glass

Instructions

Pour the gin and the chilled tomato juice into the cocktail shaker and fill it with ice cubes.
Shake for about 10 seconds, until the shaker is cold.
Strain into the cocktail glass and serve at once.

Nutrition

140calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 drink

Roughly estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for 80-proof gin and canned tomato juice.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Scale by whole drinks and keep the parts equal; shake no more than two at a time.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

Changes from the source: McIntyre reports only “equal parts tomato juice and gin.” The measure of 2 fl oz each, the ice, the shaking and the cocktail glass are ours.

Strength: 2 fl oz of 40% gin is 0.8 fl oz of alcohol in about 5 fl oz of drink once shaken, so about 16%, or about one and a third US standard drinks. Tomato juice is no cure for a hangover; McIntyre only reports that it was “reputed” to be one.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.